Seer’s Town wasn’t always a criminal haven. Turn back the clock one hundred years ago and life was no different from an ordinary, isolated village. Its proximity to the central mountain range of Grandis saw a culture revolving around the stars prosper.

Divinations were born from interpreting charted constellations. The town’s sprawl used to include the uncharted depths of the mountains. As much as they were infatuated with the skies, they left their marks into the mountains and deep beneath the surface of the Bellum Empire.

But it all disappeared shortly after the incursions that drove them out, and buried the knowledge they had of the stars for it was deemed heretical by the Royal Astra family. Elders, who had ominous titles as ‘Advisors’, were often able to see pieces of a person’s heart and offer advice through divination.

The tunnels that belonged to the Red Rose were related to this group, as were the Golden Dawn to an extent.

Autumn, Mei, and Deiman walked along a narrow walkway that was carved into the walls of a gorge. The gorge cut straight through the entirety of the mountain range, funneling gusts that threatened to throw them off balance.

They were hundreds of meters high with barely enough room for them to stand comfortably without a foot partially hanging over. Beneath was the rocky base of the ravine. Boulders and sifting rock occasionally tumbled below, the crash echoing from one side of the gorge to the other.

A thin strip of distant light illuminated their dark world, alongside Autumn’s [Flare]. Without it, they would have certainly fallen the moment they stepped out of the tunnels.

“Seers. Where have I heard that before?” Mae asked as she trotted behind, amused by how calm Deiman was. “Eve… Ana. Lyn…?”

The name was at the tip of her tongue.

“You mean the Seers of Evelyn?” Autumn asked as she rummaged through her pouch.

“That’s the one! The kind of people that could tell what a person was like, and what they could become. That takes me back!” Mae yelled.

“You must be awfully old then. How many years?” Autumn groaned, retrieving two leather belts.

“Classified. But if you gotta know, I was around the tail end of the Blue Dahlia’s reign in Grandis. I was just an inkling figuring out how to connect syllables and rhymes. An amoeba just waiting to get their crummy appendages on an instrument.”

“Blue Dahlia…” Deiman uttered as Autumn handed him and Mae a belt. “… Wasn’t she a Seer of Evelyn too?”

“One of the greatest Seers of all time. You had to hear the stories they used to sing about her. She was so powerful that she could see the shape of a person’s soul. Light like the stars appeared at the snap of her fingers. That was until she was afflicted by the memory-loss illness.”

“Quite unfortunate.” Mae shrugged, taking the belt with a look of disgust. “Not so much as a disease as it sounds like a poison, since you know, Healers couldn’t heal her.”

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Autumn grimaced and brushed Mae’s nonsensical remark away.

Mae then continued as they further descended.

“And by the way! You got it wrong. She was the most powerful Seer and pioneered the inclusion of the moon in navigation. Everyone was so attached to the stars that they practically forgot about the big ball in front of them. To this day no one can really nail down just what her power was.”

“Erase, wasn’t it? Or at least something along the lines of [Illusion] magic?” Autumn discussed, fully engrossed all of a sudden. “The same reason why her legacy disappeared without a trace. Not different to the Colorless Incandescent, but that’s an entirely different story.”

“Dunno. Heh. I’m sure my friends would know about it since they uh…” She suddenly caught her mouth, then, she immediately shifted topics. “Oh hey, so how do you put this thing on? And do we need to act like your slaves?”

“The fact you look like a Demon doesn’t help. Deiman’s hair doesn’t make it easier as well.”

“Then what about you, miss red eyes?”

“I’m a Patreon of the Highways. I’m familiar with the faces there. Also, want to tell us what your relationship with that Raoul guy is?”

“O-Oh.” Mae’s tone dropped as she looked away with guilt written over her face. “Nothing much.”

“You were scared of him…” Deiman said.

“If you knew what the guy was capable of.” Mae darted her eyes around, and looked over her shoulder just in case Raoul was still around. “Then you’d be trembling as much as I did. You two are plenty strong, but that guy isn’t normal. At all. To give you a hint, there were bastards that could banish entire cities to the Subderma Layer. Hell, they can snatch your soul and eat it right in front of you! But that Raoul guy is a fucking monster that will kill a city from inside out.”

“He didn’t look like the type to me.” Autumn found that incredibly hard to believe.

Deiman nodded silently behind her on the other hand as he wrapped the belt around his neck like a dog collar. Autumn struggled to keep her eyes off Deiman, occasionally stealing glances at him and his irresistibly fluffy tail whilst he wore the collar.

“Hey, just cause we’re wearing these collars doesn’t mean we’re actually your slaves.” Mae sighed. “So this it how feels like to be an instrument. Interesting.”

“It suits you about as much as a hat on a rock.” Autumn jabbed with a long sigh.

“I don’t get it. Is that some new idiom going around in the highways?” A question mark appeared over Mae’s head. “Thanks?”

They had been scaling the walls of the ravine for two long days now.

The paths were seldom used and required careful navigation. Loose rocks and platforms were all too common, requiring her to telekinetically hold or create makeshift pathways just so they could progress.

Thankfully, they were now less than 50 meters from the ground. Freshly disturbed tracks could be seen beneath as her [Flare] illuminated the ground.

“A band of horses must have passed through recently. Good news for us.”

“Why is that?” Deiman asked Autumn.

“An indicator. If the horses are missing or dead, then it’s good sign that something’s wrong. It’s best to send people up ahead to test the waters. It paints a picture worth a thousand words.”

“Sending sacrifices is normal?” Deiman wondered.

“It’s the way to live in Grandis. It’s better to sell people out so you can live another day.” Autumn coldly replied. “That’s what forward teams are for. It’s also a great way of showing a newbie the ropes.”

Her tone darkened towards the end.

Deiman wanted to ask if he’d be abandoned if Autumn was given the chance to, but he already knew the answer. Autumn was not his friend nor a companion. She was only here for the same reason he was. Likewise, Mae had no reason to tag along other than to wander the Bellum Empire without causing trouble.

He didn’t know what to call them, and a part of him was afraid of hearing their answer.

His ears flattened.

Afraid?

The cold blade that brushed against his heart was fear, but he did not know what caused it. Was he afraid of being betrayed by these two? Being separated? Or, was he afraid of betraying them himself?

Deiman kept it to himself as he absently stared at the light at the end of the ravine.